He is best known for his role in the assassination of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, which was an operation of the SR Combat Organization.

Kalyayev was born in Warsaw into the family of a Russian police inspector father Platon Kalyaev and a Polish mother Zofia Piotrowska who was the daughter of an impoverished nobleman.

Kalyayev became a member of Vladimir Lenin's Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class and when he was 24, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party but soon broke with them, dissatisfied with what he considered "just talk", i.e. propaganda that did not lead to direct action.

In Yaroslavl, Kalyayev befriended the Socialist-Revolutionaries and writers Boris Savinkov and Aleksey Remizov, and decided to completely devote his life to revolutionary actions.

He met Evno Azef, the commander of the SR Combat Organization and volunteered to perform political assassinations.

However, Pleve was killed by another member of the team, Yegor Sozonov, and Kalyayev did not ultimately need to use his bomb.

The next to be killed was the General-Governor of Moscow and uncle of Tsar Nicholas II, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.

She understood the words of the Gospels heart and soul, and on the eve of the funeral she demanded to be taken to the prison where Kalyayev was being held.

By her example, poor Ella appealed to society, calling upon the people to live in Christian faith.

During his exile to Yaroslavl in 1902, Kalyayev, together with Aleksey Remizov, translated poems in prose by the Polish author Stanisław Przybyszewski.